Twenty years of working in a corporate environment has brought me to a point where I have decided to give the insider's comments to the corporate BS we all have to endure.
Believe me it's not for our good.
I'd know since my day job is to create and implement corporate BS and make you and others believe in it.
Let's start wiping that BS off.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Deciphering dress codes

There are few things that confuse people more than dress codes. More precisely, there are two kinds of codes that reek corporate BS.

Dress codes are supposed to do things like creating identity, recognition or a certain style. So you wear uniforms, business suits or silly hats. You always have the choice to like it or not but for the most part there is a sound purpose for the defined dress code.

However, there is Business Casual. What's up with that? Does anyone know what that really means? No, and that's exactly the point. When VP doesn't know the social intricacies in a given situation he leaves it up to you to decide. Giving you ample chance to do a faux-pas.

Is blue jeans business casual? Probably not. But black jeans most likely are. Or at an international event, what are the exact rules then? What's business casual in BurkinaFasso?

Secondly you have the real red herring: VP announcing that the company has no dress code at all.

Ha, not true. It simply means that you should've known better when you come to work under-dressed. It means that you will have to earn your place in the team by conforming to unwritten rules that are only communicated by frowning if you break them. That's mean!

About Me

☼
I'm a VP holding an international senior management job with a well known global company.
What's a VP? Well it's short for Vice President. But for the purposes of this blog any reference to VP should be interpreted as "viktigpetter". This Swedish term translates to "pompous ass".
And yes, I'm Swedish so any nitpick comments about my English will get the VP treatment :-)